TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp said on Thursday it expects to beat its sales forecast for its PlayStation Portable handheld game gear for the year to March.
Sales of Sony’s PSP would likely hit 16 million units this year, instead of its previous outlook of 15 million units, it said.
Source — Yahoo!
BERLIN (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T) does not plan to announce price cuts to its flagship PlayStation 3 games console at Europe’s biggest video games fair in Leipzig, Germany next week, a company spokesman said on Friday.
“It’s not going to happen. If you’re coming for that you’ll be disappointed,” Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Nick Caplin said.
In the 12 months ending March 31, Sony sold 9.24 million units, below its initial estimates of 11 million sales.
But in an interview with Reuters on July 16, the company’s video game chief said the firm was on track for the current year’s target of 10 million sales.
Cuts to the Playstation 3’s original high price have helped boost its fortunes in Sony’s three-way battle with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS) in the global video game industry.
Sony ruled the video game industry for about a decade from the mid-1990s with its original PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
In the current console cycle, Sony has found itself in an unfamiliar position, trailing Nintendo’s Wii and competing neck and neck with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 for second place in monthly sales in the United States.
The Leipzig games fair runs from August 20-22.
Source — Yahoo!
Sony rolled out “LittleBigPlanet,” “God of War 3″ and “Resistance 2″ at its E3 press conference. And what is everyone talking about? A cartoony game from a no-name studio about a fat princess.
Why? Well, it isn’t the cartoony art style (although it is kind of cute). And it’s not the unique twist it takes on the old capture-the-flag game mechanic. No, what’s got everyone talking about “Fat Princess,” the forthcoming PlayStation Network game from Seattle’s Dark Star Industries is that the core objective involves stealing a princess and stuffing her with cake until she’s too fat to move.
Just what are people saying? Plenty. Feminist bloggers say the concept — and the title — is hostile to women. And those that defend the game — which, incidentally, doesn’t ship until spring — say that the feminists need to just shut up.
The flame war that’s ensued on the Internet is pretty much what you’d expect: lots of name calling, lots of four-letter words, plenty of “It’s just a game!” comments on game blogs. Sony, which doesn’t want to wade into the fray, will only say that they didn’t intend for the game to be controversial — just fun.
Really? A giant company with lots of smart people didn’t consider that a game called “Fat Princess” might be offensive in this easily offended society of ours? Controversy sells games. If they’d called the game “Storming the Castle” and buried the fat princess business in paragraph four of the press release, this game would have gotten about a tenth of the attention it’s receiving now.
“We did not, in any way, shape or form, intend to mislead or offend or distract people with the title of the game,” says Sony’s Deborah Mars, senior producer on ”Fat Princess.”
Not much is known about “Fat Princess” at this point. The game was a last-minute addition to Sony’s show-and-tell at E3, the game-industry conference earlier this month in Los Angeles. What’s being written — fact and fiction — about “Fat Princess” is based on some screen shots, one playable level and a 15-second trailer during Sony’s otherwise snore-worthy press conference.
But the games press picked up on it — and loved it. 1Up.com hailed the game as charming, with “whimsical visuals and oddball humor (that) draw you in.” It earned several best-of awards at the show, including “Best Downloadable Game” from GameSpy and IGN.com.
Enter Melissa McEwan, who was one of the first to post a negative reaction to the game. Last week, she wrote a post contemptuous of the game, punctuated with a picture of herself flipping the bird, presumably at Sony. (If hand gestures and salty language offend you, think twice before clicking the link. For the record, McEwan says the photo was an inside joke to her readers.)
Can you guess what happened next? The game blogs picked up on McEwan’s post, and we were off to the races.
“Get the f*** over it, you whiny insecure little feminists,” wrote one commenter on Kotaku. “Who didn’t see this coming?” wrote another on PS3 Fanboy. “I’ll go one further, this is a must-buy only if it is released with this title. If they bow down to these foul-mouthed fatties, I will not buy.”
Wow. That’s a lot of anger toward fat women. And feminists. And that pent-up anger, that sense that it’s OK to make fat women the butt of jokes, is what McEwan says she was reacting to.
“My central problem with the game is that the concept is hostile to fat women, that the eponymous ‘Fat Princess’ is an object of ridicule,” she says.
Not so, says Mars. The titular princess is beloved by her subjects. They will rescue her no matter if she’s thin or fat.
“This is the star of the game. And she is revered. In no way, shape or form is she ridiculed or harmed,” she says.
You know what? I’ll own up: I’m a girl gamer, and first thing I did when I heard about “Fat Princess” was chuckle — the way I chuckle when I know a joke is kind of mean. While I do see how people could be offended, the game does look fun. But the vitriol being tossed around by both camps is really a turnoff.
And it’s interesting that some of the pro –“Fat Princess” comments on the blogs are from people — guys, presumably — who admit to being a bit rotund themselves. They get the joke, so what’s wrong with all these oversensitive women with one hand in the Doritos, the other furiously typing words like “heteronormative?”
To me, though, those arguments seem less like self-aware folks in touch with their fatness and more like people who want to laugh at themselves first before anyone else does. You know, like the guy in high school who smiled wanly as he pulled himself out of the garbage can the jocks stuffed him into.
I don’t think that Sony and developer Dark Star Industries hatched some malevolent plan in a basement to make fun of overweight people. Game developers, at least the ones I’ve met, are overwhelmingly nice, creative people trying to make fun products that people will want to buy. And the idea of a cartoon character so stuffed with food that she becomes a potential obstacle to victory is an interesting take — all politics aside.
But the fact is, games have a wider audience now, and companies need to think through things like “Fat Princess” before they unleash it on the world. That doesn’t mean censor it, that doesn’t mean change the name, even. It just means that video games are getting a lot more scrutiny nowadays because more newbies have joined the gamer ranks. Three years ago, it would have been possible for a game like “Fat Princess” to fly below the radar. Not anymore.
Source — MSNBC
Patent fights are a fact of life for hardware manufacturers these days, with Sony and Nintendo both losing suits over their controllers, and Microsoft opting to settle at least one such case at the cost of $26 million. The latest patent suit to surface, as reported by GamePolitics, sees an Illinois man suing Nintendo over his patent on a “method for operating an electronic machine using a pointing device.”
Originally filed in March, the case is currently on hold pending the outcome of a US Patent and Trademark Office re-examination of the patent. That process was set in motion by iPod maker Apple in a separate suit Martin brought against the company over alleged infringement of the same patent, according to an unopposed motion to stay the proceedings filed by Nintendo. The re-examination may tilt the case in either direction, as Martin is looking to expand the patent with 14 new claims, but the patent office could also amend or cancel the patent’s existing claims.
The patent’s abstract describes a gaming system that has an amusement mode and a gambling mode, as well as a touch screen. The system would also have a GPS system, allowing access to the wagering functions only if the system were located somewhere gambling is legal. That feature would be particularly useful if the units were installed on planes, boats, and other transportation methods that move through areas where gambling is legal. The patent was originally filed in August of 2003.
While the patent title specifically mentions a touch screen, the suit doesn’t necessarily involve the Nintendo DS. When contacted by GameSpot, Martin’s legal representation confirmed the Nintendo Wii was an example of a product that he believes infringes on the patent. He added that Nintendo’s product line is being assessed for other possible violations.
Before the proceedings were stayed, Nintendo responded to the suit by denying that it had violated the patent, saying the patent’s claims are invalid, among other defenses. As of press time, the publisher hadn’t responded to GameSpot’s request for comment.
Source — Gamespot
PlayStation 3 owners may be feeling a certain sense of deja vu today. That’s because, as it did last week, this morning Sony announced the release of new firmware, which upgrades the console with two long-desired features. The first is in-game access to the XrossMediaBar (XMB), which will allow users to access limited PS3 features without quitting a game and allow direct access to other features without returning to the main PlayStation menu. The second is the PS3’s long-in-development trophy system, which will award players for in-game feats much like the Xbox 360’s achievement system.
While last week’s v2.40 PS3 firmware update was intended to bestow consoles with both functionalities, it was quickly pulled following reports of freezing consoles. On the official PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Network director Eric Lempel also said that Sony “had to take it offline temporarily because, for a limited number of users, the XMB wouldn’t display after the update was installed.” Today’s v2.41 update–which Lempel promised would arrive “shortly” after his post–has been adjusted to prevent such issues.
Another problem was encountered by some PS3 owners installing the v2.40 software while their controllers were physically plugged into their console–a problem which prevented said controllers from syncing. According to Sony customer support, anyone encountering said problem should perform a hard reset of the controller by pushing a pin or paper clip into a small hole at the controller’s bottom.
For a full rundown of the new firmware upgrade, trophies, and the in-game XMB, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage and GameSpot Hardware Insider’s hands-on preview.
Source — Gamespot
